Gael Garcia Bernal Voice of Hector in Disney Pixars COCO Interview

Last month in LA During the #PixarCocoEvent the theme of the trip was La Familia (Family). I don’t think I have ever missed my family as much as I did on a trip as I did during this one. During this trip, we were reminded again and again that Family is the most important thing. In Disney Pixar’s Coco you will find the theme La Familia truly shines through the entire film. I was lucky and got to sit in on an interview with Gael Garcia Bernal the voice of Hector in Disney Pixar’s Coco.

In Theater’s November 22, 2017

Make sure you check out my Full Spoiler Free Disney Pixar’s Coco Movie Review. Find out about why everyone is going crazy about this beautifully crafted film. In Disney Pixar’s Coco Miguel teams up with a scrappy, streetwise skeleton named Héctor (Voiced by Gael Garcia Bernal) and they set out to find Ernesto de la Cruz who they believe holds the key to Miguel’s baffling and decidedly unmusical family history.”

Check out this short clip of Hector in Disney Pixar’s Coco

About Disney Pixar’s COCO

Despite his family’s baffling generations-old ban on music, Miguel (voice of newcomer Anthony Gonzalez) dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz (voice of Benjamin Bratt). Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead following a mysterious chain of events. Along the way, he meets charming trickster Hector (voice of Gael García Bernal), and together, they set off on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel’s family history.

In Theater’s November 22, 2017

Catch The Full Trailer Below!

In this heartwarming interview, I found myself longing to go home to my little ones and begin living in the moment but still thinking about the future more deeply. Read below in this insightfully beautiful interview with Gael Garcia Bernal on his thoughts for his role as well as beautiful things he got to share with his daughter while working on this film.

Speaking With Gael Garcia Bernal

The Moment Gael Knew He Wanted To Be Apart of This Film

I went into a meeting with Lee and Adrian and Darla and they told me what the movie was gonna be about. I was there with my daughter as well and they were very kind because they brought my daughter some Finding Dory. They told me the movie because there was no script at that point, they showed me some little images of who the character was gonna be, how he was gonna look. Who was gonna be Miguel, who were the actors that were involved and they also showed me a little clip.

Thoughts About Singing For His Role

I mean it was daunting the fact that I had to sing but I like the challenge of it. But that was the one that I was a little like, ‘oh, okay. Let’s see what,’ it is but I mean I was counting on my postal code, coming from Guadalajara I think that’s why we are able to do those shouts, you know, that mariachi gritos because if you’re not from there it’s very difficult to do it. It’s one of the things that I go like, ‘okay, that I can do.’ Sing properly? Maybe not.

Thoughts on What We Can Take Away From This Culture Rich Mexican Inspired Film

You must be very familiar with the day of the dead celebration. But if you’re not, then you saw the day of the dead celebration or tradition is a very open, very generous and a transversal, kind of celebration because anything you want to put into the alter is welcome. It invites a very personal point of view the day of the dead because it’s a reflection on death and nobody has the definite answer on what happens after you die. So, it is a reflection on death that we all engage in on a very personal level. We all put those have passed, we put ourselves there, we put ourselves in as a calaca (little skulls).

As a little skull with your name on it you put yourself on the same level and stuff to reflect on death and life. – Gael Garcia Bernal

I feel so lucky to have been born with that and with a family. The school I went to and my family we always put them out so the memory, the stories, the storytelling, the tradition behind it. The reflections on life and death, it is a great way to find a personal question and a personal answer to that, to find your own, explanation around things. Anything flows so it just shows the complexity of a tradition that is incredibly deep and incredibly profound and necessary. Ultimately this reflection leads you to be a better human being leads you to be a better society, leads you to build a better future as well to live life in a much more essential way. And that’s what I think this film shows about Mexico.

It is a very generous and open and what they did to it, that they grabbed little aspects from each region in Mexico, to get everything but having a very personal also point of view around it.– Gael Garcia Bernal

What Gael Teaches His Daughter About The Day of The Dead

It is a very open ceremony, you start building the altar and you put your dead people there. We put beetles, some books that we like, some toys, a lot of food, little pieces that we found and Lego pieces. They start to reflect on them when they invite their kids, their friends to see the altar, they start to explain it to them. It is really interesting what they tell them about what goes on. That knowledge, that security that there is no concrete answer on what happens when we die, it is a great way to engage in that conversation with kids. Sometimes it is not easy to talk about it and yet it happens and it’s a great way to open up the discussion really. And to let the kids have their own answer around it.

We have to trust that complexity and you have to invite the world in this reflection because it is an important one. I think to wonder what happens and how do we keep the memory alive, how do we keep people alive with their memories, with stories. – Gael Garcia Bernal

“Seizing The Moment”

I think that what’s nice about the movie is that it shows De La Cruz having let’s say that flag. Carrying the flag of seizing your moment and I think it has been one of the most damaging aspects of western society the notion of seizing the moment. Because it has made us burn the forests that we have in front of us it has made us live in the now as if there was no tomorrow. As if we’re not engaging with a responsibility that freedom gives us to know that there’s a future and there are people that will come after. And it is not a rush, life is more, it’s more a craft.

Life Is A Craft

Little by little, it’s built little by little and seizing the moment sometimes makes you fall into a trap that it is now or never, you know. And there are moments that it is now or never but you know when that is, you know, it’s not that there’s a rule that you have to follow that path. I think it has been the really very damaging that notion. It is interesting that in the film it kind of comes into play.

A Postcard For Life – Gael and His Daughter Recording A Song Together

Ah, it was beautiful, it’s one of those moments. Acting definitely gives you so many moments that you think, ‘we’re so lucky, I’m so lucky we’re doing this job. I never thought that I was gonna dedicate and do and live off the job I love doing or these experiences that I love doing. Then you get a chance to have a beautiful postcard for life.

This is gonna be something that my daughter one day will see when she’s, I don’t know, sixty. And it will be really fun for her to remember and to hear ourselves there and it was such a great opportunity. And also she was really happy to do it but also like to say ‘I just put it out there and that’s it.’ ‘I don’t want to do anything more.’ It’s good, it was really fun. It is wonderful, it’s such a, what a gift with such a beautiful movie.

This was such a lovely interview that we had with Gael Garcia Bernal Voice of Hector in Disney Pixar’s Coco. When he spoke about his postcard for life with recording a song with his daughter for the soundtrack of Coco I teared up a little. It’s such a beautiful gift to give our little ones, something we can give them to remember us many years beyond now. Truly a great interview that I’m so happy I got to share with you all.